Programs Offer Disabled What They Really Want

May 31, 1989|By Kathy Johns.

Donna Weinberg is proud to announce that her bowling average has reached 70 and is climbing. She hopes eventually to reach the 160 average she had before she was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis five years ago.

Weinberg, 53, sits in a big, brown chair next to the picture window in her Country Club Hills home. Beside her is what she calls a ``glorified wheelchair,`` a three-wheel electric scooter that is adorned with a sheepskin seat cover and Chicago Bears and Cubs bumper stickers on the back.

She uses a regular, nonmotorized wheelchair for bowling because it is easier to transport outside her home, she says. ``My problem is my left leg. It just does not work``

Weinberg had to retire in 1986 from her job as a reports clerk at Mountain Bell Telephone Co. in Phoenix after what she calls ``a spell`` from the multiple sclerosis. She and her mother, Clar Abaire, 84, returned to the Chicago suburbs two years ago after moving to Phoenix from Palatine in 1978. They settled in Country Club Hills because her son, daughter, five

grandchildren and other relatives live in the south suburbs.

``I`ve always been active; because of the multiple sclerosis I have had to slow down a bit,`` she says.

A bowler for nearly 30 years, Weinberg says she is glad to be able to continue one of her favorite pastimes. She bowls once a week in a program offered by the South Suburban Special Recreation Association, a cooperative of eight communities that offers social and recreational activities for the mentally and physically disabled. ``Right now, I`m in bowling, the diners`

club and (going to) special events,`` she says.

The diners` club is a group of physically disabled adults who go out to dinner about twice a month at local restaurants. ``Mom goes with me to the diners` club,`` Weinberg says. ``She likes going out to eat, and so do I.``

``It`s good for her to get out and around with the (diners` club)

group,`` Abaire says. ``It gives her something to do because she can`t get out that much.``

As for special events, Weinberg went to a racetrack last summer and plans to go to a Chicago Cubs game and the Milwaukee Summerfest this summer.

Weinberg, a widow, is not content to stay put, despite her physical limitations. Since she moved to Country Club Hills, she has been active in the Coalition for the Disabled, a group of disabled adults who lobby for state legislation to benefit the disabled, and two support groups for adults with multiple sclerosis.

The special recreation association ``has given me tremendous opportunities to be able to fulfill a lot of my desires-such as my bowling, which I never thought I`d be able to do again,`` Weinberg says. ``Going out to dinner and going to the special events . . . things like that you aren`t able to do`` alone.

``I think it would have been a little bit harder to cope with the disability if I weren`t able to get out so much,`` Weinberg says. ``I give the (association) a lot of credit. They give us programs that we really want. They meet the needs of many age groups, too.``

Weinberg is 1 of about 1,600 people who participate annually in an average of three programs offered by the association, says Sandy Gbur, who has been director for six years. The association, which offers about 135 programs and special events every year, serves mentally and physically handicapped people of all ages, she says.

She is one of six full-time staff members who are assisted by 20 part-time workers and an average 30 volunteers for each of the three sessions offered each year.

Programs and special events, such as the annual picnic for participants and their families that is held the first Saturday in June, are developed by staff members, often at the request of participants or their families, Gbur says.

``We usual request of physically disabled adults who wanted more social events, she says. The association provides transportation for participants.

The association also began offering guitar and piano lessons about five years ago at the request of parents of mentally and learning disabled participants who said their children were interested in learning these instruments, she says.

``We also allow siblings to participate in some of the programs,`` Gbur says, Many parents feel that ``their nondisabled children (need) to learn how to play with their disabled siblings. We want to help foster good relationships between siblings. A lot of times they don`t know how to play with their disabled siblings because they don`t know what they (the disabled) can do.``

One of the more unusual programs offered is the Volunteer in Training program, which was started in June, 1988, Gbur says. The program is offered to young adults and teenagers with learning disabilities or mild retardation